


Written with Heart

by Brookelocks



Category: Naruto
Genre: Families of Choice, Gen, Hatake Kakashi Needs a Hug, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Angst, Random & Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 04:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18242507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brookelocks/pseuds/Brookelocks
Summary: "Sometimes just sharing your opinion or a conversation about something someone else enjoys, even if you have to grit your teeth through it, can be the little push of support that makes them keep pursuing their passion."or Kakashi has a strange way of showing his support, Jiraiya doesn't mind.





	Written with Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I had this thought at like 3 in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep until I wrote this. Sorry If there is any errors, I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated, and I love constructive criticism. Enjoy.

“That’s so incredible, perhaps you will have teach me sometime!” Kakashi watches the exchange with a critical eye. The kunoichi was tall and slim, visible muscle wrapped in pale smooth skin with long black hair braided and loosely thrown over her shoulder, a few strands falling out to frame her face. Her dark eyes are warm as she regards Kushina, they looked around the same age, Kakashi was willing to bet they must have been from the same pre-genin class. Really it wasn’t the kunoichi who interested Kakashi, what he was interested in (more like confused by,) was Kushina’s sudden fascination with artwork, after all as far as he knew she had never had any desire to paint, draw or do anything of the sort. 

“Of course! Well it was nice talking to you Kushina-san.” Almost as quickly as the woman had arrived she hurries off with a blinding smile on her delicate features. Kakashi stands next to Kushina and frowns beneath the mask. Kushina waves as the woman slips away through the market and disappears from sight rather quickly. Kushina turns back to the fruit she has been looking through earlier and they fall quiet for a few moments. 

“I didn’t know you enjoyed art.” It’s not something Kakashi intended to say out loud, it simply slips out while his curiosity gets the better of him. 

She glances his way, “I don’t. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice to look at and all I just could never do it myself.” Her smile is soft and genuine. “Sometimes just sharing your opinion or a conversation about something someone else enjoys, even if you have to grit your teeth through it, can be the little push of support that makes them keep pursuing their passion.” Kakashi doesn’t quite understand, but he will take her word for it.

* * *

It starts after Minato-Sensei dies. Kakashi wonders if he is the only one who sees it, ‘it’ being a look that crosses Jiraiya’s face when the sannin thinks no one is watching. The look is somewhere between disbelief and sorrow. It’s recognizable although Kakashi can’t put his finger on what it means, he just knows he never wants to see that look across anyone’s features. It takes a while for Kakashi to realize where he has seen the look before. 

It’s the same look Minato-Sensei got after Obito died. After Rin died. It’s the pained expression of a teacher who has just buried their student, a parent who has had to bury their child. Kakashi feels guilty, so he avoids everything for a while.

When Kakashi does drag himself out of the house it is simply because he needs to go to the market to stock his fridge. On his way back something catches his eye, a poster hangs in the front window of a small book-shop, it’s fairly easy to recognize it as the cover of one of Jiraiya’s books. It’s then that he gets the idea.

* * *

“You read my book?” Kakashi nods. He has indeed now read Jiraiya’s books- every single one of them. (It had been a bit more expensive than he had anticipated, and he had to pull the shinobi card more than once to get shop owners to overlook his age, but he was confident he had read every published book Jiraiya has written.) Jiraiya’s face brightens and he chuckles. “Which one?” 

Kakashi leans back on his stool, they are at Ichiraku’s at Kakashi’s request. “All of them.” The sannin grins and then the statement catches up with him and he falls silent. Kakashi continues when the silence becomes a bit too much. “Your writing is better than I thought it would be.” The older man stares at Kakashi, and for a moment the younger thinks he might have made a miserable miscalculation. 

Then a hand is ruffling through his hair and the legendary sannin looks happier than he has in _months_ , (Kakashi should know he has been watching the man) and Kakashi let's go a sigh of relief. “Better than you thought? Who told you about my writing?” 

“Minato-Sensei.” 

“Ah.” The silence comes back full force. The kyuubi attack was still a sensitive subject, it was fresh and almost everyone had been affected, lost someone or something. But that is why Kakashi is here, getting ramen with the legendary sannin who had been so important to Minato-sensei. They had both lost people they cared about, one a teacher and the other a student. Jiraiya turns back to his ramen, if anything this makes the young ANBU even more determined to connect with Jiraiya, because in that moment he knows that if he doesn’t no one else will. 

“I quite liked ‘Icha Icha Paradise’.” Not entirely true, after all Kakashi can’t say he enjoyed the smut but the plot wasn’t entirely terrible and well, as hard as it may be to believe Kakashi was a sucker for romance. He grins behind the mask when Jiraiya perks up, the copy-nin counts it as a victory. 

“Oh really, what was your favorite part?” 

The rest of the night gets spent with dull murmurs and laughs passed between the two, there are a few pauses and their conversation mostly centers around Jiraiya’s books- mostly because it is the safest route of conversation (they both have too many skeletons in the closet to be comfortable talking about anything else right now) - but it could be worse Kakashi supposes. When Ichiraku’s closes they end up sitting on top of hokage monument staring out at the bright lights from the village below, the discussion covers anything and everything that either one of them can think of; the characters, various plot devices and terms used, some of Kakashi’s own theories about the series (most of which the author refuses to confirm or deny). By the time they part ways most of the lights have gone out, and a chill has swept over the village.

Kakashi falls into bed that night feeling rather accomplished for actually finding a way to connect with the sannin.

* * *

It becomes tradition, if both shinobi are in town at the same time they always end up spending some amount of time together. Over time their conversation topics become more varied, although they usually still wander back to whatever Jiraiya is writing.

Kakashi starts taking a copy of Icha Icha with him everywhere, the way that Jiraiya grins when ever he sees Kakashi reading his book is worth the dirty looks he gets for reading porn in public, Kakashi doesn’t give a damn what they think of him. And if it makes him less approachable that's just an added bonus.

Somewhere along the way Kakashi starts to think of Jiraiya as family. He likes to think that the other feels the same.

* * *

Kakashi doesn’t know what to do. It happens, of course it does, he just never thought it would happen to Jiraiya (he hadn’t though it would happen to Minato-sensei either, or Rin, or Obito, or the Sandaime) but as it is shinobi die all the time. For a while he can’t think of anything to say, so instead he spends an extra few minutes at the memorial stone and reads in silence once he has done the normal routine.

* * *

Kakashi starts writing in between missions. It gets easier after that, he tells Jiraiya about the plot, the characters, and everything and anything he can think of. Of course it’s not the same but it gives him a little piece of mind. It honestly doesn’t take long before Kakashi has written an entire book. 

He gets it published on a whim. 

_He dedicates it to Jiraiya._


End file.
